"Michael grew up in a rough and tumble neighborhood in East Hartford, Connecticut. Michael knew he was failing in high school, but he continued to be passed along," DeVos said at a community college in Michigan last week.

She told the crowd how after serving in Afghanistan and working at a hotel he went on to enroll at Valencia College, a community college in Florida, where he is an honors student on track for a nursing degree.

"Community colleges give students like Michael a new lease on life," she said. "I'm sure many of you can think of the Michaels on your campuses right now."

Teachers, parents, and students demonstrated and held a news conference outside East Hartford High School on Tuesday morning to protest attempts by U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to verbally attack East Hartford Public Schools in an attempt to undermine public education and push for privitization.

DeVos first told Biagioni's story during hearing on the federal budget this spring. The description of the school as a dangerous place where students run amok and teachers simply pass failing students from one grade to the next irked local educators and politicians.

U.S. Rep. John Larson, an East Hartford graduate and former teacher at the high school, said Wednesday that he had hand delivered letters from students to the federal Department of Education and invited DeVos to visit the school.

"We still have yet to receive a response, despite numerous follow ups," he wrote in a Facebook post. "Secretary DeVos has continued to speak poorly about East Hartford as she travels around the country. Secretary DeVos, I am again calling on you to come to East Hartford and see for yourself what the community is like. Until then, stop defaming EHHS, because you don't know East Hartford."